The Google +1 button now plays a much more visible role in promoting content in search and social marketing. Much like Facebook’s Like button, Google’s +1 button allows — as of last week — Google+ users to share a comment, an image, a headline and a snippet of text when +1’ing a page. Compared to the +1 button’s previously limited role of decorating blog posts and search results pages, the expansion connects some important dots in the evolution of Google as a social media payer. More importantly for ecommerce merchants, it represents an excellent opportunity to influence what gets shared, control how it looks when shared and increase visibility in search engines and in social marketing.